Rod Stewart and his son plead guilty in Florida hotel battery case

Rod Stewart and his son have pleaded guilty to battery over an altercation with a security guard at a Florida hotel in 2019.

The musician and his son, Sean, entered guilty pleas to a misdemeanour count of “simple battery” but will not face jail, pay a fine nor go on probation. The judge withheld adjudication, which means the pair have not been formally convicted.

Rod’s lawyer, Guy Fronstin, said that the singer entered a guilty plea to “avoid the inconvenience and unnecessary burden on the court and the public that a high-profile proceeding would cause” [via BBC News].

Rod and Sean were accused of assault on New Year’s Eve 2019 when they were refused access to a private event at Breakers Palm Beach Hotel, according to a police report. Sean, 41, allegedly shoved the security guard and Rod, 76, struck his chest “with a closed fist”, the report said.

The security guard, Jessie Dixon, told officers that he’d asked Sean to back away after the singer’s son got “nose to nose” with him.

According to court documents Sean pushed Dixon before Rod threw a punch, hitting Dixon in the left ribcage.

The arresting officer’s report said that Rod apologised for his role in the incident.

In other news, Rod has revealed why he was absent from the Live Aid line-up in 1985, stating that he had “only just found out” the real reason.

It had previously been suggested that the Scottish singer was unable to put a band together at short notice, despite having recently completed a world tour, but it now seems the decision had been taken out of Stewart’s hands.

“We actually were supposed to do it,” he told the BBC last month (November 16), “but a few guys in the band told me that our ex-manager turned it down because I wasn’t getting the right news coverage.

“He only wanted me to do it if I got on the CBS news at 10 o’clock. He said, ‘If not, he’s not doing it’. And that’s not what it was all about. It was to raise money for kids. It wasn’t about what news channel you were going to be on in America.

“I only just found this out,” he added. “I thought it was weird that I didn’t do it.”

The post Rod Stewart and his son plead guilty in Florida hotel battery case appeared first on NME.

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